What comes to mind when you think of the packaging?
Depending on the context, there can be positive and negative connotations. Consumer packaging can sometimes be portrayed as wasteful or as overkill, and in some cases, that’s accurate. Industrial packaging is often overlooked, less glamourous, and for the most part, out of the public eye. One thing consumer packaging and industrial packaging have in common is that they are both necessary. Industrial packages (containers) are used to mix, process, and safely deliver products to your customers that eventually find themselves in a consumer package. Industrial containers are also used for bulk industrial applications that cannot be served efficiently or economically by smaller consumer packages.
Reusability and recyclability
Reusability and recyclability are becoming more and more important as consumers and corporations focus their attention on more mindful packaging. Mindful industrial packaging takes some of the best tried and true industrial containers and makes them more readily available through the use of a liner. In some cases, the container can be reused. In other cases, the cleaning and reconditioning turnaround time can be reduced. In the latter case, a steel drum just may get one more turn through the reconditioning process before the steel needs to be scrapped and recycled, extending the lifecycle of the drum as a valuable asset.
Extending the lifecycle of an industrial container has added somewhat hidden benefits that can lead to considerable cost savings. To and from / back and forth transportation costs can be greatly reduced, which also leads to less carbon emission for those striving to meet sustainability targets and initiatives. It also cuts downtime and lead-time associated with transportation, which in turn will improve lead-time to your customers and the end-user. The valuable product can be contained in the liner and squeezed out to optimize product evacuation. High-value container contents also have an added barrier of protection by being contained in a liner, thus ensuring product purity. Ease of container cleaning and/or reconditioning becomes something that helps all involved in the container’s life-cycle. Difficult to clean containers with sticky, hazardous, or otherwise problematic ladings now become easier to clean and help keep the container as an asset in circulation. An added benefit in this situation is minimized employee exposure to these ladings and a reduction in the amount of water needed in the cleaning process, cutting the volume of wastewater that needs to be treated.
When you think of industrial packaging now, if you’re not already doing so, try to take a more mindful approach and ask yourself, what is the lifecycle of not only your products that get shipped out to your customers but what’s the lifecycle of the containers that you receive from suppliers? What can you do to advance your companies sustainability initiatives and extend the life cycle of all packaging? Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword or marketing approach. It’s a real-life effort that everyone in an organization can be proud to promote.
Are you ready to maximize the lifecycle of your container? Let us help!
We have a number of liners, perfect for particular applications and customer requirements. Here’s a quick rundown of them—find more information on their respective product pages.
Form-Fit IBC Liners work seamlessly—literally—during high-speed or difficult fills and keep out oxygen for aseptic-requirement products. They are manufactured to form fit the internal shape of your intermediate bulk container.
IBC Pillow-Shaped Liners are pillow-shaped flexible containers that are typically constructed of two or three plies of linear low-density polyethylene and a barrier film when used for oxygen-barrier applications.
Air-Assist liners are specially designed for convenient dispense and improved evacuation of high viscosity products, providing a smooth flow of product. The Air-Assist liner features a Form-fit liner with an attached air bladder. As the air bladder is inflated, it pushes against the Form-fit liner, forcing the viscous product out of the bottom dispense fitment, resulting in less residual product left in the liner.
Drum Liners provide a clean, economical, and sustainable way to get the most use out of a steel drum—or any drum. Using a liner helps keep the drum clean and ready for re-use or recycling. With or without liners, steel drums are regularly “reconditioned,” which means they are cleaned by a third-party reconditioner and sold to be re-used. Adhesives and greases can be difficult to clean, so reconditioning isn’t always a viable option to ensure an extended life cycle of a drum. Using a liner inside drums makes the drum more palatable for a reconditioner to clean and get it back into a closed-looped system. We wrote extensively about the many sustainable benefits of drum liners in this article.
